BINGO my friend. On a day where our offense was OFF, and boy do I mean OFF, we won because we played tough defense and did all the dirty work. If I recall there were some folks asking for one of these vintage "Piston" games that used to be a norm for us. Gotta Love It!!!

If this was last year you know what happens, we lose, and we have to hear, "We just didn't make shots" blah, blah, blah...guess what, today, WE DIDN'T MAKE SHOTS, but we won, because we OUTWORKED them!!!!!

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Wish I would have seen this game. I will catch the Denver game for sure. Hopefully I get to see the Pistons OUTWORK the Nuggets!

They said that McDyess dislocated his pinky in the first quarter? That must have been on the play where he didn't get back on D and told MC to call the timeout.

Also, I didn't realize that he had 12 boards in the 4th quarter alone. That's spectacular. On a 48 rebound/game pace there? Wow.

Regarding Amir's fouls, I'm beginning to think that the games are just called tighter at the start than mid-game. There were a bunch of plays in the 2nd half where I think they would have blown the whistle on him had it been the 1st quarter.

I don't think Curry should really manage Amir's minutes though. Just let him play until he fouls out. No big deal. He'll adjust when he gets sick of fouling out. This way we'd get maximum minutes out of him. And it's not like we absolutely need him in crunch time with vets like Sheed and Dyess on the team.

This might have been a statement game for us, not to send a message to the other team, but as a message to ourselves.

Not 1 single Piston played a bad game today (save Herrmann- right Lee),

Not 1 single Piston dogged it today

Every player showed what they were capable of

They did not take the Clips for granted, this was a trap game if there ever was one - Long flight, early start, 3 hour time difference, we're injured, they're REALLY injured, etc etc

It was obvious that this was going to be a grind out win and the team responded to the challenge.

I know there are alot of folks who wish we would blow these bottom feeders out of the water, but that may be counter productive. We have 3 young players who need to learn how to win in this league (something young players - no matter how much talent they have - don't know how to do.) these tight games down the stretch are very valuable to the development of Stuckey, AA & AJ, as well as the implementation of AI. By having to play short handed, close games down the stretch we've essentially created pressure situations for our team and as a result we're seeing that Stuckey, AA, and AJ are not afraid of the situation and embrace it. These close games that we are winning now are going to play major dividends in the playoffs.

Also another game without a Tech, no crying and whining to the refs either. I really hope Rip and Rasheed are watching learning, to be at our best we really need some mature leadership from those two.

They said that McDyess dislocated his pinky in the first quarter? That must have been on the play where he didn't get back on D and told MC to call the timeout.

Also, I didn't realize that he had 12 boards in the 4th quarter alone. That's spectacular. On a 48 rebound/game pace there? Wow.

Regarding Amir's fouls, I'm beginning to think that the games are just called tighter at the start than mid-game. There were a bunch of plays in the 2nd half where I think they would have blown the whistle on him had it been the 1st quarter.

I don't think Curry should really manage Amir's minutes though. Just let him play until he fouls out. No big deal. He'll adjust when he gets sick of fouling out. This way we'd get maximum minutes out of him. And it's not like we absolutely need him in crunch time with vets like Sheed and Dyess on the team.

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Yep Dyess did leave the floor and go to the locker room right after that play and I wasn't sure what was wrong with him and if he was coming back. He returned with an ice pack on his hand, and I thought maybe he was done for the night. Glad he was able to get back in there as we needed every one of those 15 boards.

Sharpe is not going to play. Not that I don't want to see him spell Tay. It's just not going to happen this season. Rip is going to have to play the 2 and the 3. I'm curious to see what Curry is going to do. Let's say we keep this starting lineup (Stuck, AI , Tay, Amir, Sheed). We could do Stuck-Rip-Tay, AI-Rip-Tay, Stuck-AI-Rip (with only RIp out of position and Tay getting a couple minutes of rest).

And then you have to account Afflalo's minutes as well (You almost have to bury Bynum for GT only). We have a true logjam, unless, you know, we go ball to playing some small ball.

Last year I was hoping that Flip would try playing Amir minutes at the 3. This year as well. But no, it just looks like one of those things that aren't going to happen.

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We don't know when Rip will be able to come back. So you suggest we just lose in the playoffs for Tay being leg dead? We need suggestions for right now, to somehow get Tay off his feet. Cause if those legs go dead enough, they will not recover this season.

Great minds think a like. I just posted the same thing at another forum.

But I added this, Rip might not come back soon enough to prevent permanent (for this season at least) damage to Tay's legs. We should start playing Sharpe, to develop him, but more importantly, to get Tay off his feet. Now.

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I'm not sure if Sharpe is the answer, but anything is better than we got at the moment. I though this game we could have played Max at SF. Usually that probably won't work, but i think we can get away with it occassionally

His post defense is really underrated. Sheed is at his best when the player catches the ball, but Dyess really makes a guy work for that position, Amir could and should be learning alot from Dyess, he might be the most underappreciated Piston on this roster..

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Dyess is very good at defending most post players, but his help D and rotation is by far the worst on the team next to maybe KB. He should not under any circumstances be the sole big in a small ball line-up. The only thing that worries me a little is Curry seems to resort to small ball in the clutch way too much. The last two games we've built a lead with 2 bigs in the game annd then promptly given it back when we went small. Sheed is out yes, but Kwame has actually been playing well enough to be out there much longer.

And if we are going to go small the only big that can anchor that is Sheed and even he has trouble. I'd much rather see Amir out there as the only big when Sheeds out or better yet 2 bigs.

Hopefully one of Sheed or Rip or both can go for next game. We desperately need some shooting. And Stuck can't play this many minutes. It's just asking for him to hit a wall. Although, i'm not sure how much they will go down when Rip gets back. With Bynum on the shelf we don't really have back-up PG. Maybe we should go get Arroyo back. semi j/k. And these close games are bad for my nerves, but great for practicing execution.

Refs are humans. Maybe with players whining all game long, refs being fed up with players, would not have called the goal tending last 2 seconds. In other words, that would have been tech or two and a loss instead of a win.

I know that others would debate that this would have not been a close game if we had Sheed and Rip, but again, refs can make teams lose or win at game ends. I would prefer to have the refs by my side rather than the other side.